In a country where there is no fundamental and structural conflict between the people and the government, many problems are bound to arise. Some of these problems may become critical for a period, or even lead to the change of government but, regardless, the country’s political structure will remain untouched.
Conversely, when there is any conflict between the people and the ruling regime, crises will have their own special outcomes. Just by looking at Iran’s ruling clerical system, this reality becomes all too obvious.
In other words, in every protest and uprising, popular demands become immediately political, and from the regime’s perspective, a security issue, because economic demands quickly morph into calls of ‘death to Khamenei’ and the regime overthrow.
Also, any political, economic, social, and nuclear talk concerns on the part of the regime’s officials consistently change to warnings, as they are forced to address the growing threat of being toppled.
In a broadcast by the state-run TV New Channel, on January 27, of the meeting of the Administrative Council of Khorasan Province, the regime’s Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei said, “In the current situation, we really need calm, security, empathy … more than ever.”
Even though he is fully aware that the problems faced by the Iranian people are rooted in the regime itself, he also deceptively put the blame on international powers, saying, “Our ill-wishers, our enemies, hope that they will make people’s lives miserable and poison their minds with economic and psychological pressures and with some social issues.”
Despite these usual comments by the regime’s officials and mullahs, obviously dictated by its supreme leader, the state-run Aftab daily wrote in its January 26 issue, warning that the formation of the dangerous class gap “increases the likelihood of social unrest and outbursts of anger.”
After analyzing the hollow promises of the regime’s president Ebrahim Raisi, the state-run Arman daily warned that the government “has no solution out of the current situation and crises’, adding that this “will create security problems.”
On January 27, the state-run daily Etemad wrote, “Corruption in Iran’s economy has increased, inequality, class divide, public discontent, budget deficit, and wasting of financial resources has increased.”
In an interview with experts in the Jahan Sanat daily, regime officials were warned about the situation the regime has created. The article read, “Experience has shown that the social, political, economic and cultural conditions of Iran are always moving in the opposite direction of the interests of the people, and the actions of the government are aimed at harming society and the people.”
The daily also called them out, saying, “The country’s officials do not seem to understand what they are doing. The authorities are either unknowingly making decisions or are aware of what they are doing, in which case we must say that these actions are undoubtedly in the interests of themselves, to the detriment of the people and society.”
On January 30, the state-run daily Khabar Online quoted one of the regime’s MPs, Ahmad Naderi, the Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Education Commission, as saying, “When we look at the 2022 budget bill, some figures are misplaced. For example, in the discussion of allocating budget to address social ills, a small percentage has been allocated to this area, or in the important and sensitive issue of preferred currency, the government has made a mistake. I warn that if these policies continue, we will go to the point where we will see great social upheavals in 2022.”
